Fresh off a national tour, The Ghost Club returned to their hometown for a Mr. Smalls show. They stopped by WYEP for an interview and some songs from their new album, King Whatever.
Set list:
It's Your Call
Night Like These
If I Fell
Don't Let Go
Interviewer: Kyle Smith
Engineers: Thomas Cipollone, Tom Hurley
Their conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
Kyle Smith: We're Live and Direct with The Ghost Club. You may recognize them from a couple of songs, playing our summer music festival last June while their new album, “King Whatever,” comes out this weekend. Nine new songs and the first official album release for the band. They're just back from an extensive tour and Domenic Dunegan, welcome to the airwaves.
Domenic Dunegan: Thank you so much for having me here. Truly a wonderful time.
Smith: Well, let's rewind a couple of years because, for context, a couple of years ago, Liz Felix, the program director, and I got some songs sent to us, and we didn't know that you were from Pittsburgh. We discovered you that way and realized after listening to you that you had already really kind of developed quite the following, not only locally here, but also, online in the digital world, especially on Instagram. A lot of things happened over the last year. Let's talk about the album first. Where were these songs written and where did these songs come from,
Dunegan: This album was written in two halves. The first half actually was partly during Covid because I was just going for a rock and roll phase, I guess. I was picking up a guitar and just trying to be stripped back with that. And then, those ones were kind of more just like me and what I wanted.
Last summer that we all went together, this group as a band came together and we kind of locked in our lineup and everybody went out and finished the second half of the album.The songs, “It's Your Call” and “If I Fell.” It was like we kind of developed through the making of the album and kind of became instead of just like a solo project, more of a unit because he put his influences, he put his influences, and of course, my man over here on the saxophone tooted his horn pretty well.
Smith: There's a lot of excitement in the shows happening tomorrow. You guys have seemed to evolve sound-wise since the first couple of singles and some stuff you've had success with. It was very synth laden at times, and you seem to have moved more into like an indie rock and straight ahead kind of rock and roll type of sound. [00:05:51][15.5]
Dunegan: Yeah, thanks. When I started this, I was a little bit younger — still in my freshman year of college — and didn’t know how to write music. It was just a matter of figuring out how to do it. Even when you start to figure things out, you have to figure out who you are and what you want to be. Even when you know what you want, it’s still very difficult to make it happen. I always feel like I'm still trying to shape this into something that's more representative of me because I think that's the most important thing now. There are trends, and they put a lot of pressure on people to be something, but I feel like it's crucial to find the best version of yourself to show the world. At the end of the day, that’s all you can do.
Smith: Well, I'm not sure if the average listener or music fan realizes how difficult it is to establish yourself, either as a solo artist or as a band or a singer-songwriter. But especially in regards to touring, you guys just came back from over two and a half months on the road, with a bunch of shows under your belt. How did all these things end up coming together?
Dunegan: The tour kind of got put together last year. We work with Shelter Music Group, and we spoke to Hannah. She said, “Alright, I want to put you guys out on the road.” And immediately when she said that, I was like, “That's a scary thought. I've never done that before. Are people going to come out to these?” Until we were doing it, I was just scared out of my mind because, like, it’s one of those things where you want to go on the road and tour, but then you start thinking, “Okay, I have to get ten guys across the country in one RV that doesn’t have a license plate.” That was kind of horrifying. But I’ve got to give credit where credit’s due. These guys helped me when I was injured, and they stepped up. By the end, we were just like clockwork. No one was stressing out, and these guys just kept killing it night after night.
Smith: Well, we'll get the full show tomorrow night at Mister Smalls. Jack Swing opens up, Fuller will be performing as well, and then you guys hit the stage. I guess the music starts at 8:00 tomorrow night. Let’s do a couple of songs, and we'll come back and actually talk about the tour and what transpired on the road.
Night Like These
If I Fell
Smith: We are live and direct with the Ghost Club, who are releasing “King Whatever” tomorrow. It’s Record Store Day on April 20, and the show is happening at Mr. Smalls tomorrow night. There’s a track on the album called “If I Fell.” So, Dominic, you guys talked about going out on the road. It was late February when things didn’t really get underway. What happened during the first part of the tour?
Dunegan: Oh, man. Yeah. On the second night of the tour in New York City, during the set, I would jump off the stage into the crowd, dance with the crowd, and then I would jump onto a bar. But I didn’t look around, and my spatial awareness was non-existent. I didn’t realize the bar was low down, so when I jumped up, I was looking down at the bar. When I stood up, I hit the back of my head really hard. I got a really severe concussion. I didn’t even realize anything was wrong until these guys were like, “Yeah, we gotta get you to a hospital right now.” I was just out of it for about a week, and I’m still kind of loose with memory now. I fumble my words a little bit. So, yeah, I quite literally fell, and these guys caught me and helped me out tremendously. I can’t thank them enough because that first opening week was unbelievably stressful. But I’m glad we got through it, and I’m glad I got through it with these guys.
Smith: Things seemed to turn around by the time you hit Austin and South by Southwest. There was a nice Paste Magazine article that came out with a preview of the song. You just hit live, and it gave you some nice accolades. You ended up playing on the Spin Stage at South by Southwest. How did that happen?
Dunegan: We have a publicist who came out to our Nashville show. I always hate talking about myself like this, but he felt the set was strong enough that he really wanted us to play South by Southwest. So he made a couple of calls, and then we got the word: “Hey, you guys are playing South by Southwest on the Spin Stage.” That was a really big moment for me, just because the first part of that tour was a train wreck. I was emotionally devastated. Getting that news put wind in our sails, and then we played the South by Southwest stage. That was the first night things really went smoothly, and from that point on, it was full steam ahead. We just kept chugging through the tour, and it became really enjoyable. Now we’re back home, and I don’t know what to do.
Smith: Well, rest is probably a good thing after, what, 12,000 or 13,000 miles on the road?
Dunegan: Oh yeah. It was a lot of driving. You don’t realize how much nothing there is between some cities. It was very beautiful to see the country, but it’s weird because I’ve talked to the guys. We can’t quite rest yet because we have tomorrow. I’m always thinking about it, going to bed and dreaming about tomorrow. Once tomorrow is over, that’s when we can rest. But we still have some work to do.
Smith: Alright. You were supposed to have a week off before the show tonight, but because of the concussion, you went back to do a couple of shows in Philly and DC this past week. But now, you’ve established yourself online, you’ve got a lot of followers, millions of listens, and you can see in different areas where those listeners are. What was it like to actually connect with them in real time as a Pittsburgh band that hadn’t been out there touring before?
Dunegan: That was honestly the most wild thing of my life. Some cities act differently than others, but for whatever reason, Salt Lake was one of the standout examples of the best nights of shows I’ve ever played. People were lined up, even though it didn’t sell out, so if you wanted to get up front, you had to wait. But people were just having fun and singing everything back to us. That’s the most surreal part for me — when I take off my ears and hear people singing things back. I really can’t describe how that makes me feel other than it's the most surreal thing.
Smith: Well, before the last song here, I think it’s a good time to introduce the rest of the guys. You've referred to them a little bit, but let us know who else is in the band.
Dunegan: Yeah. So behind me playing bass guitar, we’ve got Logan Casper. To my right, we’ve got Jake Barber. He usually plays keys as well as the saxophone and sometimes the triangle. And then over here we’ve got my good friend Isaiah Ross on all guitars and background vocals. And back here is the mastermind of this whole operation, Criminal Liberty on the drums.
Smith: Alright, this is Ghost Club, Live & Direct here. The album release is tomorrow at Mr. Smalls, and it's going to be the full-on rock and roll experience. A little stripped-down version here at our live session today. How about a final song before we send you guys off?
Dunegan: Sounds good.